[victor.m]

Basically, my clutch has gone.

I was driving my car tonight, as I usually do, very gently and peacefully. I pull up to a fast food place, grab some food, and go back out.

I get into my 2009 FA5, and as soon as I pull out I start noticing major clutch slippage. I keep going in hopes that maybe I was half-engaged or something, but the clutch keeps not grabbing and all of a sudden my whole cabin smells like clutch.

Naturally I pull over into a parking lot, with the clutch barely grabbing at this point, and get my car towed.

The outside smelled like pure clutch and now the car will barely move..all this out of nowhere. No overrev, no misshift, no dumping, nothing.

I'm waiting to get the car taken to Honda tomorrow, but what could have possibly happened? Are they going to play the "clutch wear and tear" item card on me? Because this is, quite frankly, ridiculous.

Any insight appreciated, mostly a vent I guess, since right now I have no clue what's going on.

- Vic

 

[w00t692]

how many miles do you have on the car?

Basically if you've gone over about 10k, you can kiss your hopes that they'll cover it bye bye.

You might have a case if you have about 5k on it.

 

[actionjeans]

Well, if it was a mechanical failure, they'll be able to tell - as in broken springs, cracked clutch, broken pieces, that sort of thing; but if it's just worn out, it will very likely be out of pocket. As w00t692 say - how many miles?

 

[victor.m]

Car has approx 15k miles, only had it since last October. It's been mostly highway driven for the miles, lots of long distance (1k round trip).

Truly I don't know what to expect but the tech said that it's mostly likely covered since the car has such low miles and clutch failure is not expected anywhere near where I am right now. Again, there was really no abuse whatsoever to the car, the clutch just kind of freaked out on me. It's just weird since I have not heard of this happening to anyone else.

The car is currently at Honda, they probably won't have anything to tell me 'til Monday or Tuesday due to the service dept being closed tomorrow and I only got the car there at 12pm today, and they closed at 5pm.

I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes over.

 

[wilbert recinos]

gl bro, but the clutch usually goes on your pocket honda will try to blame it on you no matter what....

 

[Legend Zero]

im really worried about this. i mean my clutch seems fine but i'm always worried that im going to screw up m clutch since they say the SI already has a week clutch, and this is my first stick car. =(

 

[victor.m]

Just so everyone knows the verdict, I eventually had a HoA rep come to the dealership and I am paying only $400 of the $1300 repair, and Honda is paying the rest under good-will consideration.

Overall I am fairly happy with how Honda dealt with the situation and strived to keep me a customer. While I still think it's impossible that the clutch could have worn that much with only 15,000 miles, I still know they could have just said NO.

 

[nicayotte]

still sucks tho that some 90's hatches are running originals with 5x the miles you have..

 

[tpattgeek]

Did you buy it brand new? If you had it since October, calculating average annual mileage, sounds like you may have picked it up with 7 or 8,000 miles on it. If it's used, I can say how much I dislike buying used cars. I understand you have to sometimes, but a car like this, used, is a pretty big gamble.

On another note, if this is your first MT, I'm not extremely surprised if the throwout bearings are gone or pressure plate is simply worn out due to an inexperienced driver. Couple that with the supposed weak OEM clutch, and again, not extremely surprised. This is why I stick with AT for reliability. I know they're more expensive to maintain, but seems like they have far fewer issues (less prone to operator error). My first and second vehicles were MT, and I can definitely see how you can put unintentional strain on the clutch the first few years of driving one. Good luck nonetheless.

 

[JoeFromPA]

That sucks that it's even goodwill. I AM NOT directing this at you, but alot of very experienced manual transmissions drivers have had very early clutch failures on this car. I blame it on people not realizing just how much they are slipping the clutch during regular "gentle" driving.

If that's your case, I hope you discover it and take care of it. You should be able to tell if that's your problem, if your old clutch is worn out/glazed over deeply and your flywheel is hot-spotted/warped.

If not, then you should find out it's a mechanical problem and I'm sorry this happened to you at all.

 

[travis_si]

Just so everyone knows the verdict, I eventually had a HoA rep come to the dealership and I am paying only $400 of the $1300 repair, and Honda is paying the rest under good-will consideration.

Overall I am fairly happy with how Honda dealt with the situation and strived to keep me a customer. While I still think it's impossible that the clutch could have worn that much with only 15,000 miles, I still know they could have just said NO.

cost me 2200 on my 07 fg2. consider yourself lucky.

 

[JoeFromPA]

It costs you $2200 to get a new clutch? You realize it's about $300-400 in parts and 5-6 hours of labor, right?

 

[low&slow]

still sucks tho that some 90's hatches are running originals with 5x the miles you have..

:yeahthat:

 

[pjeterm]

exedy stage 2 with fly wheel aftermarket clutch kit less than a 700 for sure or oem for over 1300. went through the same prob with the clucth but with out the smell and out of nowhere mishap. i did it to myself. Honda wont warranty it"wearable item". Honda tried screwed me over so i told the pretty much to F*** off with there 1300 with labor and oem. went to corpsort and got a exedy stage 2 with light weight flyhweel combo. 3hours of install time since my trans was already out. oh yeah the dealer charged me 300 just to tear it down and only look at it. the tightened every bolt on the subframe to so perfect ever though i told them only make it towable. they f***ed up my wheel bearing by loosing up my axle nut as well and at the same time my axle seal so i was screwed 3x in one week by Honda. I was leaking redline transfulid all over. they were trying to tell me that it was coolant.